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RP-280F vs Quartet vs Heresy III

Caution: Longish review. If you fancy a read, grab your favorite cocktail and enjoy. If you don’t drink, this might be significantly more painful for you. A little bit of background about listening preferences: My reference system consists of a pair of all-original 1978 Altec 19 with 416-8B woofers and 802-8g tweeters, both with the AlNiCo magnets. I mostly stream lossless audio from my Mac to a Maverick Audio D1 DAC. The speakers are driven from a Rogue Audio Cronus Magnum II tube integrated amp. I enjoy a balanced sound that leans toward warm and lush. If given the choice, I prefer to sacrifice the edge of detail to have a more musical experience. I don’t need to hear if Mark Knopfler has a booger hanging out of his nose or not; I want to enjoy music. I tried the three sets of speakers with two setups, the Maverick DAC with tube out to an NAD D 3020 integrated, and the Maverick with SS out to a Denon 2808ci receiver working as a preamp to a B&K Video-5 amp. The Quartets have been updated with Crites’ titanium tweeters and new crossovers. RP-280F First, anyone concerned about efficiency on these - stop worrying. These play at almost the same exact level as the other two. They are rated at 98db, the Heresy 99db, and Quartet 97.5db. Perhaps they are not exactly 98, but they are so close it doesn’t matter. I didn’t bother using my SPL meter – it wasn’t worth testing what was clearly a very close race. Shoving a flashlight into the rear tractrix port, and getting my nose in there, I could see bracing that I assume extends the height of the speaker. I wasn’t about to take apart brand-new speakers to see what else may be going on in there. While music is playing, the cabinet has just a small amount of vibration and feels solid. It’s not a bank vault, but it’s not the singing box of years past, either. This new design and bracing gets the cabinet out of the way of the sound, which leaves no trace of “boxiness” in the RP-280F’s listening profile. I have begun calling the RP-280F “the Skinnies.” At 43” tall, they make the Quartets look short, and the Heresy III positively dumpy. It’s no surprise that the Skinnies have the most modern look of the three, and may actually be accepted by your spouse – the one who may have thought once or eighteen times about setting ablaze your 1970s boxes. I gave the Skinnies 25-30 hours of break-in before making final judgments. Out of the box, they had plenty of highs and lows, but they had a leanness in the midrange. At first, listening to them felt like enjoying a pile of nachos without the meat, cheese, or sour cream. After letting them play awhile, more meat appeared in the midrange. You might be thinking, “Nope, your ears got used to it.” False. I did an A/B vs the Quartets within the first couple hours of hooking the Skinnies up, and then 30 hours in. At first, the Skinnies sounded lean, and were lacking warmth. I was ready to dismiss them and deal with the expletive-laden process of packing them up and sending them in for return. Thirty hours in, the tonality became sweeter, and lusher like their distant cousins, the Quartets. This was verified with an A/B switch. What was initially a lean sound became more rounded, but with layers of detail. The voices have left the box. The Skinnies’ cabinet design produces a clean, open sound that is free from the confines of its dimensions. I challenge any “golden ear” audiophile, in a blind test, to tell me these are horns. Thanks to the new hybrid tractrix horn , there are no horn colorations on these guys,. With an updated crossover design, these speakers create an incredibly smooth sound. They also have enough detail to satisfy, but they’re not the last word in transparency. And I don’t care. They’re that satisfying. Depending on your source equipment, some glassiness will rear its ugly head in the upper registers (8khz+). This wasn’t apparent when using the setup mentioned for review, but when using a Schiit DAC and some terrible cables, there was a need to reduce 8khz and 16khz by ~1db. Distortion? None. I’m sure there will be people that will crank these a lot louder than I am willing to go. But at the borderline scream-to-the-person-next-to-you level at which I played them, I heard no distortion. The bass stayed clean and all parts of the mix stayed together without any compression. Speaking of bass, that’s incredible. They dig deep and clean. Very clean. No bazooka-tube subwoofer here. Efficiency and speed are virtues of the updated woofers. There was power and texture to some drums that I have not heard since a couple years ago when I heard a set of GamuT RS9. I bought these knowing they are not hand-built and that they have vinyl veneer. The veneer is actually pretty neat looking, with deep and dramatic vertical grains, but it isn’t actually wood. Sitting next to the Quartet and Heresy, which are both veneered in real oak, there is an obvious difference. Since I don’t generally stare at the sides of them or touch them, I don’t particularly care about that. Generally, I’d much rather pay for drivers and engineering than a beautiful cabinet with cheap parts, and to that end, the RP-280F delivers exactly what I expected. However, if I could, I’d pay for both the cabinet and parts, which basically means I’d be paying for their big brother, the RF-7ii. Cheap veneer is one thing, but the detail that makes me want to throw a tantrum in the middle of the grocery store is the final fit of the parts. The rubber horns are easily peeled back to reveal double-stick tape to hold them down onto the baffle. The horn does fit snugly into holes like a traditional speaker grill and they aren’t going anywhere, but I don’t want to see double stick tape on these - anywhere. Verdict: Put extra holes to place them in, charge me an extra $50, I don’t care. Get rid of the tape. In the end, the Skinnies are like a fine martini; they’re sophisticated, clean, and slightly sharp. They remind me of a blend of the airy precision of the Martin Logan ESLs, and the bass power of the Magico Q7 Mkii. The RP-280Fs are also finicky like a martini. If you use bottom-shelf booze, you get a drink that will get you where you need to go, but you probably won’t enjoy it very much; there will be harshness and regret. Use something more full-bodied and clean, and you’ve got yourself a pleasant evening. There are speakers with more detail, and those that are warmer, but overall, the sound of the RP-280F is balanced and pleasant. Quartet Why are you in a box? Come out of the box. Seriously, why must the sound be coming from a box? OK, we’ll go with it. Switching from the 280 to these, the sound felt like it was being thrown at you from directly inside the box. You can hear the box, you can hear the horns, but if you leave them playing for a minute or two, you do forget about that. They have a sweetness to their sound that is like being sung to sleep by your favorite aunt. They approach the detail of the 280, but cannot match it. Some portions of the music are smoothed over, blended up, and played back with a cream cheese coating. The Quartets only had the slightest bit more warmth in voices than the 280, but lack the air and detail. With their airless cream cheese, it would suggest much more warmth than the 280, but an A/B switch reveals the biggest differences are detail and extension. Playing louder, I sensed the tiniest hint of harshness to the sound as compared to the 280. Without the 280 in the room, this goes completely unnoticed. Neither of these will have a problem destroying your ears at concert-level volumes, if that’s what you’re into. Rather than a sharp martini, the Quartets are a creamy cup of coffee on a cold winter’s day. They are enjoyable to listen to, and it’s only with an A/B test that you can really hear their faults. Heresy III These guys are squatty, ugly, they image too low, and don’t have as much detail as either of the other two. Voices from the Heresies still come from a box, but just like the Quartet, you quickly forget about the boxy sound. As the Heresies played, I felt as though they were wearing velvet while a monk played panpipes and stroked my hair. Their sound is purely relaxing. Voices are slightly recessed, and lack some air, but have a richness to their tone. Both the Heresy and Quartet can throw a wider soundstage than the 280, but lack the pinpoint imaging. Wider baffles seem to be able to create a wider stage much more easily. Regarding the Heresy, the velvety sound, with a wider soundstage, creates a more intimate experience. There is most definitely a Heritage sound, and I like it. The 280 are close when you really focus, but you won’t mistake them for any Heritage model, even if you’re drunk on that martini. Conclusion If I had to choose just one set to live with, it would be the Heresy. They are angled up, looking at you like eager puppies, and are ready to play. They put a smile on my face whenever I see or hear them. Filled with soul and emotion, they are special in a way the new 280s can’t touch. These will be sticking with me, for a good, long time. But let’s say I get to keep two pairs. If that were the case, I’d be keeping the Heresy and the 280. Their tonality is very close, and I get to experience more detail with the 280. It is important not to mistake this detail for brightness. Yes, the Heresies are a tick warmer, but the 280 are not lacking. For their location (my family room, in the heart of my house), the 280 are more visually acceptable, and as an added bonus, are mind-blowing for movies. If I had another room that needed speakers, I’d keep all three.

September 8, 2020

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